ABT’s Stiefel will lead Ballet Pacifica

In a high-profile move to upgrade its status, Irvine-based Ballet Pacifica has named acclaimed American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Ethan Stiefel, 31, its “artistic director-designate.”

“Of all the candidates we were talking to, he was the one who really stood out in coming to the table with a real vision of what the company could be and should be,” executive director Thomas Gulick said Wednesday. “Plus he fit the business plan.”

Speaking, like Gulick, from the company’s studios, Stiefel said: “What attracted me was just the extraordinary opportunity to come into an organization on the ground floor, so to speak -- to bring in staff, repertoire and dancers.

“That’s something every artistic director looks for. I see great things for this company, and if I don’t do it, someone else will. And I want to be the one to do it.”

The troupe currently has a letter of agreement with Stiefel to cover an interim period of seven to eight months until he comes aboard as artistic director in September.

“We will be finishing his actual director’s contract in January,” Gulick said. “That probably will be for at least three years, quite possibly five. We won’t do a public performance probably until February 2006.”

Stiefel added that he would continue to perform with ABT.

He said “there are several people on the ABT roster who are already doing this kind of thing -- Julio Bocca, Vladimir Malakhov, Nina Ananiashvili.”

But Stiefel said he would stop making guest appearances with other companies.

Gulick said the company planned to begin looking for new dancers in March by holding auditions locally, in New York and in Chicago. Ballet Pacifica has eight full-time dancers, all of whose contracts expire in May.

Stiefel’s appointment ends a period of turmoil that began in 2003 when artistic director Molly Lynch resigned after 15 years at the helm, citing artistic differences with the board.

She was quickly replaced by Christina Lyon, a former ABT corps member and Newport Beach resident who left less than two months later after the board scrapped most of her plans, citing a $200,000 budget shortfall.

Since then, Gillian Finley, head of the Ballet Pacifica Conservatory, has served as acting director.

The troupe, founded in 1962 in Laguna Beach, operates on a budget of $1.7 million. It runs a children’s series, an annual “Nutcracker” production and a subscription series at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

Gulick said he hoped to raise the budget to $6.5 million “over the next few years” and to expand the roster to 18 dancers who would perform one full-length ballet and three programs of mixed repertory each season.

“That requires a strong commitment from the community,” he said. “We’ve been talking to potential donors over the last few months. We’re hoping we’ll be both portable and affordable to tour both regionally and nationally.”